WESTHOUGHTON Lions hammered Bolton Mets in the local derby in the North West League Division Four.

The men from the Den dominated throughout as Mets caved in and lost 90-0.

In the first game of the second half of the season it was one-way traffic from the first try in the opening seconds of the match.

Mets held firm for around 10 minutes and the half-back pairing of Ste Hickey and Mark Dorning were marshalling their troops around the field, causing the opposition some problems without scoring.

Forwards Gavin Corfield, Josh Cooke and Paul Leigh continually took the ball to the line while several offloads had the defence scrambling.

But after the reasonable early signs, the Mets were overpowered by the Lions who began to take control of the game and move the ball down the line.

They opened up gaps in the Mets defence and ran in several tries to make the scoreline 26-0 at the half time.

The second half was a complete walkover as the Lions ran in 11 tries, taking their total to 16 over the 80 minutes with only three conversions missed.

Mets' tackling was poor but they could take heart from a superb performance by 17-year-old full-back Sam Smith.

Despite the Mets defensive line being broken with regularity, he brought down the stampeding Lions time and time again.

The youngest player to turn out for Mets in the last 10 years he has impressed in his first four games of rugby league in both attack and defence.

He is just one of a number of 17-year-olds to join Mets, with Matt Chowdhury making his debut recently and Paddy Hargreaves and Joshua MacDonald making theirs on Saturday.

Hooker Neil Walsh was picked out by the opposition as man of the match, due to his hard running and ferocious tackling, with Ste Hickey and Josh Cooke runners-up. Sam Smith was top tackler.

Mets have a free weekend on Saturday.